The Picture Of Reluctance, In A $135 Shirt

November 9, 2011

As we noted last night, Mitt Romney revealed in an interview to ABC that he had no intention of running for president again until the last year or two when he and his wife realized that Barack Obama could not get the economy back on track and that the country was crying out for Romney's leadership.

We noted that this was interesting, given that a bunch of clues the past few years suggested that Romney was in fact intent on a second run, including the fact that he wrote a book attacking the president and the fact that he spent a whole lot of time traveling to early primary states to campaign for Republican candidates and disbursed a whole lot of money from his leadership PAC last year to Republican campaigns and groups.

But a sharp-eyed reader today pointed to an even more definite sign that Romney's avowal of a reluctant recent decision to run again was a bit questionable. Namely, that the very day he ended his 2008 campaign, his advisers were telling reporters he would try again in 2012:

Making the dramatic announcement at the annual Conservative Political Action Conference at a Washington hotel, Romney clearly hoped to preserve the goodwill of his party for another possible bid in 2012. He intends to run again in four years, according to a senior member of his inner circle.

"He should be president. 2012," the confidant e-mailed after talking to Romney.

Finally, while we're on the topic of the reluctant candidate, let me recommend a fun item that got lost in Cainamania yesterday: The WaPo's Phil Rucker tracked down Romney's new regular-guy shirt for the Iowa hustings and found it at Nordstrom's -- it's by the French designer Faconnable and it retails for the regular-guy price of $135.